A look at the statistics suggest that Real Madrid win more games without the famed trio of Karim Benzema, Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo(dubbed BBC) than with them. The El Clasico against Barcelona is the next La Liga game for Zinedine Zidane’s Real Madrid side and quite a lot of their fans are increasingly worried about their chances because of the recent injury to Welshman Gareth Bale.

Bale suffered a 'traumatic dislocation of the peroneal tendons' to his right ankle during Los Blancos’ Champions League tie against Sporting Lisbon effectively ruling him out till 2017. However, the statistics suggest that Real, in fact, cope better without him.

Lost only 3 out of 51 games without Bale

With Bale, Madrid have won 99 games, drawn 21 games and lost 19 games with 330 goals scored and 112 goals conceded. Without Gareth Bale, Madrid have won on 41 occasions with 7 draws, scoring 191 goals and conceding 53. They have only lost 3 of the 51 games the player has missed and one of these was the Copa del Rey game against Cadiz last season which they went on to get disqualified from after fielding an ineligible player, namely Denis Cheryshev.

A further look at the stats when it comes to the trio of Benzema, Bale and Cristiano tells a similar story – Real Madrid have started more games without the trio (104 games) than with (86 matches). This is due to various reasons including injuries and their last 3 managers’ (Carlo Ancelotti, Rafa Benitez and Zidane) starting eleven choices.

When the trio do not play together, the side boasts a win-rate of 78%, a draw rate of 11.5% and a 10.5% loss rate. This suggests that Real Madrid are more than capable of coping without their big three up front and shows the squad depth that they possess.

Better defensively, worse offensively

Looking at their defensive record with and without BBC – Real Madrid concede 0.95 goals per game with the trio, compared to 0.64 without them - a clear indication that their criticism is perhaps fair with respect to the fact that they do not contribute as much defensively.

However, on the flipside, attacking wise, with BBC, Real Madrid score 2.91 goals per game on an average while managing to score only 2.06 without them.

These statistics will surely be useful to Zidane as he looks to pick the ideal eleven against Barcelona, to pull off a victory and go further ahead of the Catalans in the La Liga. Los Blancos lead the La Liga with 33 points from 13 games while Barcelona are in 2nd with 27 points from the same number of games.